A national approach to digital library development:

The case of the National Digital Library of Latvia

Uldis ZarinsHead of Digital Library

National Library of LatviaVilnius, 24.11.2011

Possible approaches

• Digitisation on institutional level• Topic based digitisation• Project based digitisation• Digitisation on sectoral level• Digitisation on national level

Bacground

• Digital collections since 1999• Archive, Library, Museum digitisation program

from 2002 to 2005• National Digital Library program since 2006

– DOM platform– Digitisation guidelines– Pilot projects– No governance model

Status quo

• No governance of digitisation• No state digitisation strategy• No budget for digitisation• Project based development• DOM, NMKK, VAIS, KK platforms• No common standards

Lessons learned

• Central governance is crucial• One size fits all solutions don’t work

– Different metadata and standards– Different institutional interests– Different views on digitisation– Different competence and resources

Towards national approach

• Evaluation of efforts• Internal brainstorming• External discussions• Drafting of business and IT architekture• Drafting of national strategy

Technical level

• Shared infrastructure– For digitisation– For long term preservation– For access– For participation in international projects

Knowledge level

• Common authority files• Common metadata schemas• Common digitisation standarts• Shared centres of competence

Governance level

• Common funding• Scope of content• Coordination of priorities• Deduplication of efforts

Prerequisites

• National strategy• Political support• Budget• Common goals

Threats

• No political support• Sustainability• Narrowmindedness

Questions?

Thank you!uldis.zarins@lnb.lv